endive producers “worried” for the years to come despite a good harvest this fall

Mid-October, the endive harvest begins in the North. The first feedback is positive but producers fear the future without a herbicide which has just been banned.

It’s mid-October and endive producers are moving into harvest. Benoît Coustenoble, based in Avelin (North) is rather satisfied with the chicons whose roots he has just pulled out.

“The caliber is good, it’s quite uniform, normally, there shouldn’t be any problems,” he explains at the microphone of BFM Grand Lille. If the farmer’s forecasts are good, he will have produced 600 tonnes of endive, or 100 more than the previous harvest.

“Last year, we were very disappointed, we sowed a little more to compensate for the stocks we didn’t have and replenish our stocks for next year,” he adds.

Like many of his fellow endivers, Benoît Coustenoble is dreading the year 2025. European regulations now prohibit the use of benfluralin, a phytosanitary product used to weed crops.

Request for moratorium

“This is the last year where we could use the solutions that were traditionally used by our producers. We are waiting for the next planting season which will arrive in May and June 2025, so we are still very worried for future campaigns”, summarizes Pierre Varlet, general director of Apef, the association of endive producers in France.

The endive producers’ lobby would like a moratorium on the ban on these herbicides while waiting to find alternatives that are still being tested.

In the Nord and Pas-de-Calais, the sector generates 230 million euros and employs nearly 4,000 people.